Why No Excuse

No Excuse is a blog focusing on poverty and poverty issues in Hamilton, Ontario. Look here daily for news items, events, resources, and a chance to engage in discussions with others on local poverty issues. No Excuse was originally staff-written when it was launched in 2007 as part of the Hamilton Spectator's Poverty Project, but it is now a community blog written by people who come from all walks of city life, but share a deep concern for poverty issues. See "Who Are We" for more information about our authors.

April 2009

April 23, 2009

For the last year or so, the City of Hamilton has had an affordable transit pass ‘pilot project’ to help people who work but still live below the low income cutoff. We know there are about 25,000 people in Hamilton who shove off to work — at various hours of the day — and yet don’t earn enough to be able to pull out of poverty. The affordable transit pass was created to help ease the high cost of getting to jobs by providing a bus pass at 50 per cent off. A regular adult bus pass costs $79/month — a lot of money if you are making minimum wage and trying to pay for food, rent, utilities and all the other necessities.The affordable transit pass pilot project has been monitored by a community working group convened by the Roundtable for Poverty Reduction. There were concerns that too few people know about the program. On Wednesday, City Council’s emergency and community services committee agreed, on the advice of City staff and the affordable transit pass working group, to extend the program to individuals who may work a part-time job but also receive Ontario Works or Ontario Disability Support Program “top-up” benefits. Previously, individuals who were in receipt of social assistance or live with family members who are in receipt of social assistance were not eligible. Just to be clear, though, to be eligible the person must still work at least part time hours.The discussion led to an interesting debate around whether Hamilton should be providing free public transit to all individuals on Ontario Works or the Ontario Disability Support Program. Rough estimates suggested it might cost around $6 million a year in lost revenue to the HSR. Staff was asked to come back with some concrete numbers on the financial impact of such a move. Recently, the City created a free bus pass for all riders over the age of 80. We know that individuals in receipt of social assistance are living on below-subsistence incomes and the cost of traveling to medical appointments or job interviews — to say nothing about busing-it to get groceries at $2.40 each way ($1.85 per ticket) — can be an overwhelming expense. Do you think a free bus pass is a good idea?

April 22, 2009

Members of the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction including Sandy Leyland, Bill Medeiros, Tom Cooper and me made a presentation to the Government of Ontario Standing Committee on Social Policy about Bill 152, an act respecting a long-term strategy to reduce poverty in Ontario. Below are a few highlights from the Roundtable’s presentation to the Standing Committee:

Bill 152: Overview and principlesParticipation of thousands of Ontarians in community consultations indicates significant support for the Ontario Poverty Strategy. We believe that government plays a critical role in poverty reduction and alleviation. This role includes reforming the rules which keep individuals and families living in poverty, investing in the lives of children and their families and investing in communities. Difficult economic circumstances affect the most vulnerable and marginalized more severely and leadership and investment is a critical support and lifeline to 1.8 million Ontarians below the poverty line.We commend the government for bringing forward Bill 152. This is the first time in this province that a legislative initiative seeks to enshrine the need to reduce poverty. The government of Ontario has taken a bold step in creating an inter-ministerial working committee to focus on developing a poverty reduction strategy. We recommend that this process be entrenched in Bill 152 to ensure that future governments will continue the collaborative, cross-ministerial response to the complex issue of poverty. We would note, however, that the process undertaken for public hearings on this bill was restrictive for those individuals who will be most affected by the legislation, people living with low and limited incomes. We are very pleased to be joined today by two of the Roundtable’s citizen leaders who have influenced our directions and identified priorities for Hamilton’s vulnerable populations.

Specific poverty reduction targetsThe Roundtable believes that the most important target is the elimination of poverty for all citizens and recommends that the goal of a poverty-free Ontario be enshrined in the legislation. However, we recognize that interim targets can be a positive factor in evaluating success in reducing poverty. We also recommend the inclusion of additional targets which recognize low-income sub-populations which are particularly vulnerable to high rates of poverty including Aboriginal people, single mothers, recent immigrants, or visible minorities.

Initiatives to improve the lives of those living in povertyWe would recommend that the “initiatives designed to improve the economic and social conditions of persons and families living in poverty” be publicly released by the minister on an annual basis and contain both funded investments and information about government priorities such as reform of the rules and regulations which keep individuals, children and families living in poverty.The Province of Ontario’s Poverty Reduction Strategy identified a number of investments in children, youth and their families living in poverty. Many of these investments are driven through a variety of provincial ministries. We recommend that a flexible funding and program delivery approach can leverage with municipal investments to create opportunities for people living in poverty. In the Minister’s December, 2008 report Breaking the Cycle, “rule changes” were identified that have since provided much needed help to families in receipt of social assistance.

Indicators that will measure successWe recommend that annual reporting of the eight poverty reduction indicators from both a provincial and community focus would enable local communities to determine the success of their poverty reduction strategies at the community level, gaps in progress and priority setting as well as determining how the community was doing relative to the provincial results.

April 20, 2009

The report on Income and Poverty in Hamilton was released Friday. The meeting at Riverdale was well attended. The report was
interesting, except … it was based on 2005 figures. The data from 2005
was showing an improvement, especially amongst the seniors. I wonder how that
will continue. As the population ages, with greater demands on the various
programs and payments, how can that trend continue, especially now with fewer
workers and wages lowered?A disturbing trend in the 2005 statistics is the increase of children living
in poverty. Darrel Skidmore, CEO
United Way of Burlington and Greater Hamilton, gave a vivid
illustration of this problem. There were 26,112 Hamilton children living in poverty in 2006. If we filled the seats of Copps Coliseum with our impoverished children, there
would still be a long line outside. The report certainly did not explore the problems of the
“nouveau pauvre” of today. We will have to wait for another four
years to know how bad things are. Is it really necessary to wait that long to
know that Hamilton is having problems and that Ontario is now a have-not
province?

April 16, 2009

Canada Without Poverty (formally the National Anti-Poverty Organization) has emailed some interesting information from report called Growing Unequal? Income Distribution and Poverty in OECD Countries from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The OECD brings together governments of 30 countries committed to free markets to compare policies on economic growth and other economic measures. There is also Canada-specific summary information. According to the OECD, in the mid-2000s, Canada’s poverty rate (using the indicator of 50 per cent of median income) was higher and income inequality was greater than the OECD average. These findings are based on fascinating data and information published in October 2008 by the OECD.The OECD also found in this study that “incomes are more equally distributed and fewer people are poor where social spending is high: the Nordic countries and western European countries, such as Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands. Social spending on people of working age was 7-8 per cent of national income in 2005 and the share of working-age people in poverty was between 5 per cent and 8 per cent. At the other end of the spectrum, Korea, Mexico, Turkey and the United States spent 2 per cent or less of national income on benefits and had 12-15% of the working age population in poverty.”

Canada without Poverty also prepared the following table that triggers the question – just what is Canada’s poverty rate? The answer depends on the indicator one chooses. The table below shows that, for the mid-2000s, Canada’s poverty rate might have been as low as 5% or as high as 19% - depending on the indicator chosen. Using the 50% of median income indicator (as the OECD does), Canada’s poverty rate in the mid-2000s was 13%.

1) Data has been rounded to the nearest percentage point or one tenth of a million, and pertains to 2005, 2006 or the “mid-2000s.” 2) The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development tracks the poverty rates of its member states based on 40%, 50% and 60% of median income (50% of median income is typically used for international comparison). Data is for the mid-2000s.3) Human Resources and Skills Development Canada has published poverty rate data for Canada for the years 2000 to 2006, using the Market Basket Measure of low income, which “attempts to identify a standard of living lying between the poles of subsistence and social inclusion.” Data is for 2006.4) In addition to tracking 50% of median income as a “Low Income Measure,” Statistics Canada tracks low income using the Low Income Cut-off (LICO). The LICO before and after tax figures are income thresholds “below which a family is likely to spend significantly more of its income on food, shelter and clothing than the average family.” Data is for 2006.In December 2008, the Government of Canada used LICO After Tax figures in reporting to the UN Human Rights Council on low income and poverty in Canada, as part of the first Universal Periodic Review of Canada’s human rights performance.5) Chris Sarlo and the Fraser Institute have published four different estimates of “income poverty” using the Basic Needs Measure. The lowest of these estimates in 2005 was a 5% poverty rate (rounded off) in 2005.Source: Rob Rainer, Canada Without Poverty - 613-789-0096 (1-800-810-1076) rob@cwp-csp.ca

April 08, 2009

I have been avoiding talking about poverty lately because of the increasing numbers of hard working people who are suddenly out of work. Now there will be lots of people who will know what it is like to live in poverty and they will find out the hard way that Canada, especially Ontario, has no social safety net.Until poverty actually happens to you or someone you love, there is no need to think about it, no need to worry about what you will do or how you will pay the bills and eat.Our entire social mind set has been based upon what major corporations have wanted us to think. They have dictated the policies, and filled the major media outlets with commercials that tell us what we want next, what we should be interested in and how we always need to continue to buy.George W. Bush exemplified this social mind set when he bravely stood on a pile of rubble for that fantastic photo op after 9/11, and made spending the very first priority to fight back at the insanity of the Twin Towers. But the real statement should have been, “What drove people to direct three airplanes into Wall Street and the Pentagon, with plans for the White House?”Decades of the American Dream as dictated by stock prices had driven many to join in with extremists to give the Western lifestyle the finger.Isn’t it strange that it was shortly after Obama won the presidency that we saw money markets all over the world suddenly crash. Why was that?Was it the combination of circumstances, oddly melding their situations at the same time to collapse? Or it was the final recognition that the global market economy wasn’t real and would hit the wall when there were no connections to hold the lie together any more.Now the very way of life hundreds of thousands of working class people in Canada and the United States clung to has no future. Their retirement stocks are worthless, their jobs redundant, their survival network gone.Because for over the past 60 or more years after the first stock market crash, corporations gathered themselves together and put their political key points in place through money, rather than the false democracy that Wall Street created. They changed laws and removed barriers until they could continue to make millions by exploiting Mother Earth’s natural resources all over the world. Now the depths of “doing without” that have long been felt by Third World countries will be felt by us. Those living poverty in Canada who have long struggled to make their voices heard don’t need to fight tooth and nail to get the public to understand, because the majority of the public are now or will be poor.Along with the job losses comes the realization that those jobs were also based upon exploitation of our ecosystems. The very earth we need to grow our food and the local water we take for granted in our daily lives were abused to make billionaires out of the few, while the rest of us were kept scrambling.All over the world, masses of people are in the streets. Here in Canada, we wait and hope that if we just keep using the same solutions we have always used, things will change. Well, things are going to change but it won’t be humans making the decisions, it will be Mother Earth.Rex Weyler, one of the original founders of GreenPeace, used a term that I have heard quite a bit lately. It is called “overshoot.” It means we humans have been living on borrowed time and under an illusion for too long. The sooner we get back to living simply and living local, the better our chances will be to be able to eat. And one last question, why are we letting our government give tax dollars to the very Corporations that have created this situation?It is time for reality, people. Hard cold reality. Spring is here — go and plant a garden.Photo taken from Ben Sutherland's photocream http://www.flickr.com/photos/bensutherland/